There are some cases where various electronic equipment such as an information processing device, a communication device, etc. fail to function normally due to various noises. As examples of such noises that have adverse effects on these devices, there have been known electrostatic discharge noise, discharge noise which occurs at an electrical contact point of a switch, an electromagnetic relay or the like when the power is turned on/off, a radiation electromagnetic field noise occurring due to radio waves for TV broadcasting or cellular phones, and conduction noise which is transmitted through a power line or a signal line.
Such noises may induce some malfunction in electronic equipment. For example, when the electronic equipment drives a movable unit of a robot, the malfunction may cause a major problem such as an accident resulting in injury or death if the degree of the malfunction is sufficiently serious.
Accordingly, it is necessary to take countermeasures against the above-described noises for the electronic equipment. However, the countermeasure to be taken is varied in accordance with the cause of the noise. In addition, it requires a high cost to take countermeasures against the noises, and thus when electronic equipment is suspected of suffering from noise problems, it is necessary to detect and analyze the noise source in order to take a suitable countermeasure against the noise in accordance with the analysis result.
Japanese Patent Application No. Hei-06-36859 has proposed an electrostatic discharge detecting apparatus as an apparatus for detecting and recording discharge noise due to electrostatic discharge, one of the above-described noises against which countermeasures should be taken. However, the above-described electrostatic discharge detecting apparatus can detect only the electrostatic discharge noise, among various noises which cause malfunctions of various electronic equipment such as an information processing device, a communication device, etc.
According to the present invention, there is implemented an apparatus in which under the condition that it operates normally under such an environment that various noises having a high level occur, the occurrence of each of the noises which occur irregularly and have poor reproducibility is detected by each of sensors for detecting a discharge noise, a radiation electromagnetic field noise and a conduction noise, respectively, and the level of the detected noise is recorded together with the time of occurrence of the noise, thereby detecting and recording noises other than the electrostatic discharge noise.
That is, an object of the present invention is to provide a noise detecting and recording apparatus which can be widely used in connection with countermeasures against the malfunction of electronic equipment due to noises.